Laurie David: The E Magazine Interview
by Erin Courtenay - Madison, WI on 03.28.06
Laurie David is smart. Okay, so that may not seem like news - but considering that celebrity activism can ring a bit hollow at times (recall Naomi Watts' well-intentioned but erroneous statement that hybrids "drive 20 miles per gallon"), Ms. David stands out as an articulate and very well informed advocate for climate protection. She's also frank about the opportunities her celebrity status and connections in the entertainment industry offer her as an environmentalist. When asked about her efforts to make climate change palatable to the public, Ms. David says "It has been my goal this year to permeate popular culture with this issue, and to use all of the resources that I have available to me to make that happen... Just using everything I can to take this issue off the science pages and put it on the front pages. My feeling is that if people don't start demanding change, the government is not going to change." Read the interview at the E Magazine website. Thank you for the tip John L!
Too bad she also uses private planes, which makes her a hypocrite, just like the governor of California.
If the self-proclaimed environmentalists are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the average American, like Laurie "Gulfstream" David and Arnold "Hummer" Schwarzenegger, then we are doomed.
"Too bad she also uses private planes, which makes her a hypocrite, just like the governor of California.
If the self-proclaimed environmentalists are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the average American, like Laurie "Gulfstream" David and Arnold "Hummer" Schwarzenegger, then we are doomed."
So, what's your solution? Should we live in a totalitarian state where everyone consumes the exact same amount of materials, regardless of what they do with their life? I'm sure Amory Lovins puts on a lot of air miles every year. Does that make him a hypocrite? Or does the work he does have so much positive effect for the environment that his personal consumption is meaningless?
From Outside magazine:
Laurie David produced "a set of controversial 2003 television commercials that equated people who buy big SUVS with backers of terrorist training camps. This is a woman who's not afraid to chase down Hummer drivers so she can flip them off from the seat of her Prius. "I believe in peer pressure," she says. "Look what it's done for smoking and fur coats."
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I also believe in peer pressure, so Laurie, make a tiny tiny sacrifice and give up those private planes -- or tells us you offset the emissions from your vacation trips by private planes -- to show us that you really care about the environment. (And tell your friend Arnie to get rid of those Hummers!)
Laurie introduced Bobby Kennedy at the intro. speech to the 2006 Public Interest Environmental Conference held every year (and put on by law students) at the University of Florida. I rode my bike there and on the way passed a gigantic limo parked in the bike lane next to the bat house on campus (it was dusk and they were starting to leave).
There were tons of cars on the road and I did not relish having to go into traffic around the limo, so yelled to the driver standing next to the limo, "This is not a parking lane!" Immediately after which my husband, from behind me, said, "You know that was Bobby Kennedy, don't you?" He and some students had stopped on the way to his speech to look at the bats. Needless to say, I thought that was hilarious.
Laurie's introduction was quite good (and although I do see the hypocrisy, I see the benefits also), and Kennedy's was out of this world--amazing speech. I am still not sure what to think about the limo and blocking the bike lane, except to say that it can probably be blamed on the lack of ingenuity of the conference organizers more than on Kennedy himself. They thought a limo would be a great way to get everyone around, and to show their gratitude.
where are our posts showing laurie the light in her words?!?!?!?!?!?!?!